Friday, September 4, 2015

One more murder and another glaring silence, wake up India.

Indian writer, scholar and rationalist Mr. MM Kalburgi was murdered few days back outside his residence. He was under radar of some fanatic organizations for his views about religion specially about Hindiusm. Finally his life was taken away in same manure as they did for some other similar thinkers like Dr. Narendra Dabholkar and CPI leader Mr. Govind Panse. These three murders symbolize recent disturbing trend of intolerance prevailing in Indian society where people who dare to challenge status quo or whose thoughts are not in alignment with majority are attacked or eliminated by murders. As if these murders are not serious or disturbing enough there is some sort of glaring silence about these acts, looks like people expect these things to happen. Only certain section of society is questioning these acts, media and most people are busy in debating some celebrity kid murder or some other issues. No doubt that any murder should be condemned and covered by media but one can easily see the disproportionate coverage offered by media which shows which direction we are moving as a society.

Disagreeing with someone's ideas or thoughts, criticizing them or questioning them is perfectly fine and it is universally acceptable way of debate and discussion in any civilized society. But physically attacking them, threatening them to an extent that some of them resign from their profession or withdraw their articles and books is a sign of intolerant and barbaric society. Environment of fear and unwanted aggression is not conducive for intellectual growth of any society. There are many societies in this world who live in this type of environment and we all can see what is their situation today. India by large is perceived as very tolerant and inclusive society, very diverse nature of its population is proof of this. Whatever success it achieved as a country can be largely attributed to this tolerant nature where intellectuals were not scared to express their opinions and ideas. But occurrence of such incidents put a big question mark on this claim. The society which fails to protect its intellectuals will also fail to protect its intellect. Display of such unwanted aggression towards intellectuals is totally unwanted phenomena and I am amazed that respective governments didn't react strongly against any of these murders. Whole India was on roads after that infamous Delhi gang rape incident and people were right in protesting against such inhuman crime but these murders are also in same category. They are equally shameful, disturbing and inhumane acts. Protection and safety of intellectuals of society are as important as anyone else and it should be given prime importance, specially when such things start happening. If this aggression and attacks are in any way result of recent change of political situation in India then it should be a matter of big concern to the current ruling party of India (BJP). They should not hesitate to take all required actions to remove this atmosphere of fear and insecurity. I hope these incidents are not taken lightly, I know that these murders won't make any media headlines or won't find place on front page of national news papers but these things are as concerning as any other scam, rape, murder or natural disaster. Such incidents have capacity of decaying society's fabric slowly and if ignored they can result in serious damage to India in long term.

I strongly register my protest against these attacks, I am deeply hurt and pained to see that some people are attacked and murdered just for expressing their thoughts. These murders are no different than recent killings of some bloggers in Bangladesh. I hope people from India (as well as Bangladesh) take serious note of these happenings and act to bring back that tolerant and fearless environment. I hope people learn to agree to disagree and carry on discussion rather than choosing path of violence. I offer my sincere tribute to these brave free thinkers who dared to express themselves even in very hostile environment, I salute to their braveness and courage with which they fought against all odds, I hope society for which they sacrificed their lives won't forget them and their thoughts.